133:46:16 Haise: Roger, Al. And to rephrase the question earlier, on the way back down, you might integrate any distinction in the lithology on the way back with a better Sun angle and you're free to take grab samples en route to Weird.

133:46:35 Shepard: Okay.

133:46:36 Mitchell: Al, I think that's Weird to the north...I mean just to the left of (the line of sight to) North Triplet. And North Triplet appears to me to be right behind the LM (meaning 'aft of the LM').

133:46:48 Shepard: Yeah.

133:46:49 Mitchell: You agree?

133:46:51 Shepard: It's halfway between those two large boulders and one way down.

[The first part of the trip back to the LM is covered by a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the USGS map and a detail ( 0.5 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

133:47:11 Shepard: Okay. (Pause) Okay, these rocks, or these boulders, in this field here appear to be very weathered, obviously not by (chuckles) atmosphere, but eroded by some process, because they all show cracks. They show evidences of being broken up either by impact or subsequently. And it looks to me as though these rocks are really pretty old.

133:47:47 Haise: Roger, Al. And do you have anything left on the 16-millimeter or has it been running on the MET.

133:47:57 Shepard: No, it hasn't. We might turn it on now and follow the progress.

133:48:00 Haise: Roger, Al. (Pause)

133:48:10 Shepard: Is it running now? (Pause) Yeah.

133:48:15 Mitchell: Have you checked the setting on it?

133:48:18 Shepard: Guess I better.

133:48:22 Haise: And, Al. Without taking any extra time, if you come across any boulders large enough, we might fill the comm check (square) on the way down. If you haven't already done that on the way up.

[Mitchell - "That was to get behind the boulder and see if we could block out the comm. But, by this time, we're down out of that big boulder field and there's nothing to squat behind and check the communications."]

133:48:38 Mitchell: I don't think we're going to find any along our path big enough, Fredo. The very largest ones are off to the right - south of us a bit (means north) - (garbled) up the hill a bit more.

[Jones - "I certainly don't hear the labored breathing on this run downhill."]

[Mitchell - "The run downhill was a piece of cake. It was easy to go downhill, and the MET was the only thing that really slowed us down, because it couldn't go as fast as we could go. It was bouncing around. And, having to navigate around craters and rocks and boulders, it was flipping/flopping all around. That was really the only thing that slowed us down. We could have been at a dead run and it's almost no effort."]

[Jones - "Do you remember feeling any instability, or was it a real
stable run."]

[Mitchell - "That nice skipping gait that I liked was very easy to do
going down the hill. You could take longer steps, because of that bound and, with the
slope, I'd float further down before I hit again. So, it was easy coming down the hill."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "With respect to
familiarization with the terrain: if we were coming at a relatively high rate of speed, as we were coming back down from Cone Crater - where we were kind of running in a down-Sun direction, there were times when we had to be careful. If you were running directly down-Sun, there's an area where (in) two or three more steps you're going to be in a crater. So, you're going to have to zigzag a little bit, but I didn't have any problems avoiding those things. As long as you can see two or three steps ahead of you, it's sort of like broken-field running. The whole process is so totally much slower than you are used to on the Earth (because of the lower gravity). Even when you get going in leaps and long strides, you can change direction and get around the craters fairly well. You can do this even with a fairly high-speed lope."]

133:49:50 Shepard: Right here again, Houston, the texture here
appears to be...The regolith appears to be a lot of pebbles, approximately a quarter of an inch on down, that go along with the
fines. And the same textured pattern we spoke of before and photographed
is also here.

133:50:15 Haise: Roger, Al. (Pause)

133:50:23 Shepard: Okay. Why don't we stop here to see if we're
really going to Weird.

[They have stopped near the top of
'Flank Ridge' to get their bearings. The approximate location of this stop is shown in the segment diagram.]

133:50:34 Shepard: Is that Weird right down there, do you think?

133:50:37 Mitchell: Huh? No, Weird is...Let's see; Weird is almost
due east of the LM.

133:50:48 Haise: And, Al and Ed,...

133:50:49 Mitchell: (Garbled under Haise)...

133:50:49 Haise: ...we'd like an EMU check.

133:50:53 Mitchell: ...it's subdued.

133:50:56 Shepard: Okay; this is Al. 3.75 and 45 percent; and I'm
on Medium flow, and I'm comfortable.

133:51:06 Mitchell: Okay, this is Ed. I'm on 3.75; Min flow, 40 percent, and very comfortable. And there is
Weird, Al. You can see the triple crater in it.

[By 'triple crater', Ed means that he can see the distinctive shape caused by the fact that Weird actually represents three overlapping craters. See, also, the traverse map that Ed is carrying.]

133:51:17 Shepard: Okay...

133:51:18 Mitchell: It's got the white spot.

133:51:19 Shepard: Rog.

133:51:20 Mitchell: Got it?

133:51:21 Shepard: Yep. With the boulder in the near foreground.

133:51:23 Mitchell: Yup. (Long Pause as they start moving again)

[The boulder in question is undoubtedly the one just east of Weird Crater. It is labeled 1204 on the USGS map. This is Weird Rock, as shown in a
three-photo portrait (assembly by David Harland) that Al will take at about 134:04:53. See, also, a detail ( 0.4 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

[Jones - "I remember from reading in the technical
debrief that you used the boulder next to Weird as a tracking point."]

[Mitchell - "Yeah. Because, as I recall now...The reason it got called Weird is because of the triple (garbled under Ed's rambunctious young son, Adam) inside of it. The triplet inside of Weird was, I think, what gave it the name. And it (the boulder) was a good landmark for me to see it. So, once we were sure we could see that, and coming downhill, we lost Weird again when we came down through this valley and I think we come on to that pretty quick."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We started back down the hill. From the elevation where we stopped, the view down in the valley was just fantastic. But, outside of that, we could see exactly where we were going at this time. We said we were going back to Weird and we could see Weird. There was no question about it."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "It was just like a map. Fortunately, there was a boulder between us and Weird. We used it as a reference; and, if that baby hadn't been there, I'm not sure we would have found Weird when we got down on the flat."]

133:51:37 Shepard: Okay. We're now out of the boulder field, Houston, and proceeding on down
the flank.

133:51:44 Haise: Roger, Al.

[As indicated on the USGS map, they are slightly east of the top of
'Flank Ridge' and will continue running along parallel to the ridge crest as it slopes down toward the southwest. AS indicated by the contour lines on the USGS map, the ridge top is fairly flat in this area.]

133:51:50 Shepard: And, I believe I'll just get a shot...Let's get a sample of that baby right there. Let's grab some from that one.

133:51:54 Mitchell: All right.

133:51:57 Shepard: We're just going to get a quick grab here of a rock, and I'll photograph it because it's got some tremendous fillets on it.

133:52:05 Mitchell: (Garbled) (Pause)

133:52:12 Shepard: Don't hit the fillets until I photograph it. (Garbled) and let me get a quick shot there. Get a quick (pause) pan across there. That looks like...Yeah, we ought to get a piece of that baby.

[They are at Station C2, near CW.6/86.2 ( 0.8 Mb ). See the
segment diagram, a detail from the USGS map, and a detail ( 0.5 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image. They are perhaps 20 meters west of Station B3. They left Saddle Rock at about 133:46:13 and made a one-minute map stop along the way. They traveled about 205 meters and were on the move for about 4 minutes 40 seconds. The average speed was about 44 meters/minute.]

[Al's photographs of Filleted Rock and its fillet are AS14-64-
9130 to
9133.]

133:54:03 Shepard: A little higher c.g. (center of gravity) now than we had before with that big rock in there. (Long Pause) Fredo, can you give us an idea at about what time we should arrive at Weird?

133:54:24 Haise: Stand by one.

133:54:25 Shepard: (Garbled) time. (Long Pause)

133:54:53 Mitchell: That 16-millimeter (camera) is bouncing all over every place.

133:54:58 Shepard: Well, it'll be a good...

133:54:59 Mitchell: It's taken photos from every view. (Pause)

133:55:17 Shepard: Okay. I hate to make a grab here that's not from this crater. It looks like that cut fairly deep, though.

133:56:27 Mitchell: As a matter of fact, I think this is Flank right here.

[They were on the move for about two minutes before stopping to make this grab sample. During the trip from Station C2 to Station E, their average speed will be about 67 meters/minute and, at that speed, they would have traveled about 135 meters since leaving C2, which would put them near the southeast rim of Flank Crater, immediately above the label 'Dg' on the
USGS map. See, also, the
segment diagram and a detail ( 0.6 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

133:56:31 Shepard: Got it on board?

133:56:32 Mitchell: Yeah, I've got the rock on board.

133:56:33 Shepard: Okay, let's press.

[This is sample 14311, a 2.7 kg breccia which broke into four pieces prior to its arrival in Houston. A 115-gram fragment (14311,63) has become a NASA display sample and was photographed by Kipp Teague while it was on exhibit at Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, Virginia on 28 October 2000.]

133:56:35 Haise: Roger. And one other question that's up here is to check for the stratigraphy reported earlier of the light gray-white layer below the top, if you see that exposed anywhere.

133:56:50 Shepard: Okay. Now, we did not see that until we started approaching the edge of the boulder field. There's no evidence of that at all that we noticed.

133:57:01 Mitchell: Not down this far. One thing I did notice further outside of where we saw the white underneath; it looked like an impact had either been of the white rock or it was a splatter of white. And it was just outside where Al was reporting that the underlying layer was white. As a matter of fact...No, that's just...The Sun angle was causing it. Right now, some of the spray that we're kicking up looks white underneath, but I'm convinced it's just the (Sun) angle. I looked back the other way, and it's not substantiated.

133:58:55 Haise: Very good, Al. Looks kind of like you're making a little better time going down than up.

133:59:05 Mitchell: Yeah, the slope's a different way, Fredo. (Pause) In this case, the MET helps.

133:59:22 Shepard: Okay, don't let me lose that baby (meaning Weird Crater). That's it right there with the three...

133:59:24 Mitchell: Yeah.

133:59:25 Shepard: ...with the three rocks beyond it.

133:59:26 Mitchell: Yup.

133:59:29 Shepard: We're getting down to the place where we won't be able to see it. (Pause) This is probably Flank right here, isn't it?

133:59:48 Mitchell: I'm not going to say until I get down and look at the exact pattern. It probably is, Al. But if this is really Flank, we should have been at the top of Cone Crater where we were.

134:00:01 Shepard: Yeah, I know.

[Since leaving the site of the grab sample, they have been on the move for about 3 minutes 30 seconds and, at 67 meters/minute, they would have traveled about 230 meters and would be in the vicinity of the boulder labeled '914' on the USGS map.]

134:00:03 Mitchell: I think we've already passed Flank.

134:00:12 Haise: Okay. It maybe looks down here, Ed, that may be what you're looking at there, if you've got another Flank-size crater, is the one by (Station) E.

[Fred is refering to the crater at CS.5/78.5 ( 0.6 Mb ) on the pre-flight geology map. This is the crater they confused with Flank during the outbound trek. The nearest rim of this crater is about 60 meters west of the planned Station E location. Initially, Ed seems to think that Fred is talking about the much smaller crater that is immediately WNW of the planned Station E location. This small crater is labeled '915' on the post-flight USGS map. Ed soon realizes that he and Fred are both talking about the crater at CS.5/78.5. See, also, a detail ( 0.6 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

134:00:24 Mitchell: No, this is a big crater. It's 40, 50 meters across. It has a fairly sharp crater in the south edge of it, which is...

[At 134:00:24, Ed began by describing the large crater centered at CS.5/78.5 ( 0.6 Mb ). On the map, the grid squares are 50 meters across and, as Ed says, the crater diameter is about 40-50 meters. He then mentioned a small, sharp crater on the south edge of the large crater with a diameter of 20-30 feet (6-9 meters). On the map, we see that this crater is centered at about CR.9/78.4 and is roughly 7 meters (23 feet) in diameter. Because even fresh craters have depths no more than 20 to 25 percent of their diameters, Ed's depth estimate of "50 or 60 feet (15-18 meters)" necessarily refers to the large crater.]

134:01:03 Shepard: Why don't we just grab a couple from right here. Yup.

134:01:04 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause)

[This is Station E, near CS.0/78.7 ( 0.6 Mb ). As Al mentions in a moment, they are on, or near, the rim of the 40-50-meter crater, as indicated on USGS map. The straight-line distance from Station C2 is about 400 meters and, taking account of their 30-second stop for a grab sample at 133:56, they covered the distance in no more than 6 minutes. This implies an average speed of about 67 meters/minute. See, also, the
segment diagram and a detail ( 0.6 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Even though there was a little confusion (in the navigation), we were able to spot ourselves coming by Flank, and then Fredo helped us to identify the one by point E. We knew where we were at that point but, after we passed point E and started looking for Weird, it just wasn't there."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "But the boulder was, so we had a good landmark. That may be the way you'd do it."]

[They are leaving Station E and are headed toward Station F. As indicated on the segment diagram, Al will make a brief detour to Weird Rock. See, also, the
USGS map and a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

134:03:07 Mitchell: One of the problems of going down hill here is that you have essentially diffraction, I guess, around your body, and it creates a halo effect in your shadow, and you just can't see a darn thing right in front of you.

[Jones - "Is there an example of the halo effect in one of the pictures?"]

[Mitchell - "Yeah, I think you can almost see it in the pictures.
Most shadows are absolutely black and white, but when you're looking down-Sun, it's like it blossoms, just like it blossoms on the TV. Around the image. When you're looking down-Sun, everything seems to blossom around the shadow, right out in front of you. Around your own shadow. It's like you're getting a diffraction pattern - a reflection - in some way. Like the light's bending. It gives you a screwy effect, it really screws up your vision."]

134:04:07 Shepard: Okay, Fred, we're still moving, and MET's about 3 minutes away now from Weird.

134:04:17 Haise: Roger, Al. (Pause)

134:04:23 Mitchell: The crater we are going by now - we're just to the north of it, Fredo - is an old subdued crater.

[They have been on the move for about 2 minutes 20 seconds since leaving Station E. The subdued crater is the one centered at CQ.3/75.2 ( 0.6 Mb ). On the
USGS map, this crater is east of the smaller crater labeled '1211' and immediately north of the one labeled '1212'. See, also, the
segment diagram and a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image. They have covered about 200 meters since leaving Station E; and their average speed is now about 85 meters/minute or about 5.1 km/hr. This speed is comparable to those achieved by various J-mission crew members, albeit on flatter ground. Note that Al and Ed are now off of Cone Ridge.]

134:04:30 Mitchell: Uh-oh.

134:04:32 Shepard: If you want to run over behind that boulder over there, and I'll try and talk to you.

134:04:36 Mitchell: You're the one that has to get behind it and try to talk to Houston.

134:04:38 Shepard: Oh, that's right. Okay.

[The two PLSSs are not identical. The comm unit in Ed's PLSS only 'talks' to the comm unit in Al's PLSS and not directly to the LM. Al's PLSS is the one that 'talks' to the LM and, thereby, acts as a relay station for Ed's comm. In order to see if a large boulder affects comm to the LM, it is Al who has to put the boulder between himself and the LM.]

[The track Al made running to the boulder can be seen - albeit faintly - in a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the November 2009, 0.5 m/pixel LROC image.]

[This brief experiment may be a relic of a much more elaborate set of lunar surface communications experiment proposed for Apollo 13 by BellComm researcher I.I Rosenblum in a 5 October 1970 memo ( 3.6Mb ) downloaded from the NASA Technical Reports Server in November 2008.

[Al's photos are AS14-64-
9134 to
9136. David Harland has combined them as a mini-pan.]

[Weird Rock is visible on the traverse map at CR.0/74.3 ( 0.6 Mb ) and, also, in AS14-64-
9146, a frame in the pan that Al will take at Station F. Note that, in Al's Station F pan, which he takes at 134:07:18, the MET tracks do not go near the boulder, confirming that it was Al who took the boulder photos.]

[With regard to the possibility of losing comm if they don't have line-of-sight to the LM, Journal Contributor Bill Wood writes, "While one would think that a VHF signal in the range the PLSS transmitters used (roughly 250 to 300 MHz) should be only line of sight, the signals can bounce and bend around the surface of the Moon up to a point. Especially with the 1 -2 watt power the PLSS transmitters used. I suspect they could go a few kilometers over the horizon and still communicate just fine. If they could keep a direct line of sight they could probably go as far as 500
km or so and still be heard."]

[In a second e-mail, Bill added, "Each time the CSM would go around to the far side of the Moon, the S-band downlink signal (2200 Mhz) would actually be present for a short time after it went behind the moon. It has a very distinctive signature that one could hear if the receiver operator had the dynamic phase error (DPE) signal on a speaker. Tom Jonas, our shift Receiver-exciter engineer occasionally reported seeing the CSM downlink on the USB receiver spectrum display unit popping in and out just before the CSM would come out from behind the Moon. So it looks like even S-band signals get refracted on the surface of the Moon."]

134:05:11 Haise: Okay, and this big boulder, Al, is...You're just about at Weird now. Is that right?